1. Field of the Invention
This work is related to the development of a heat-recovering-thrust-turbine engine having a unique rotational flow path compared with the flow path of the conventional gas turbine engines.
The invented thrust turbine engine is lighter, simpler in its parts structure and smaller in size. However, it develops higher thrust due to the generation of gases having high pressure and velocity.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The conventional gas turbine engine generally consists of compressor(s), combustion chamber(s) and turbine(s). In this engine, huge quantities of air are compressed by a compressor. After this compressed air greatly heated and accelerated by burning with fuel, the air remaining after the burning process and the gases produced by combustion cause a turbine rotor, mounted on the same shaft as that of the compressor, to rotate.
On leaving a turbine section, the air and gases are expelled to the outside air through a divergent nozzle. As the gases flow into the divergent nozzle, the velocity of the gases progressively increases towards the nozzle exit. The reaction to this further increase in momentum is a pressure force acting on the inner wall of the nozzle. A component of this force acting parallel to the longitudinal axis of the nozzle produces the further increase in thrust.
In the divergent nozzle, pressure loss and energy loss occur for the reason that the area of the divergent nozzle is increased towards its exit.
If .theta., a, V.sub.0, m are the diverging angle of the exhaust nozzle, and the acceleration, the initial velocity and mass of the exhaust gases, respectively, the momentum of the exhaust gases acting on the inner wall of the exhaust nozzle after t seconds, P, can be written in the form EQU P=m(at-(V.sub.0 +at) tan .theta.
In the above equation, thrust of the conventional gas turbine engine can be derived as P sin .theta.. Therefore, when the pressure or the velocity of the exhaust gases passing through the nozzle increases, the pressure loss and the energy loss of these gases could be increased.
In the conventional gas turbine engines, the exhaust gases flow straight forward to the nozzle exit without rotation. However, in the present invention, the heat-recovering-thrust-turbine engine with rotational flow path has a unique nozzle which has been designed to rotate the exhaust gases by an angle of 360 degrees and then, expell it outside air. Thus, the propulsive force or thrust of the thrust turbine is increased as the pressure and the velocity of the exhaust gases are increased.
The thrust turbine engine of the invention has several unique advantages; in the thrust turbine, the centrifugal force of the exhaust gases can be completely converted to its thrust. The air from the entrance of the thrust turbine engine is compressed in a compression section, and rushes into a combustion chamber through the manifolds connecting the combustion chamber to the exit of the compression section, being perpendicularly placed to the center line of the thrust turbine. Therefore, part of the heat content of the exhaust gases can be recovered by cold air passing through the manifolds having been devised in this work.
And also, the specific volume (the ratio of the engine volume to its thrust) and the specific weight (the ratio of the engine weight to its thrust) could be lowered more than that of the conventional gas turbine engines because the thrust turbine has equipped a simple and combined rotating disc to which rotor blades, for a compression and the generation of turbine power, are attached.